“Should I wash the oil off after face massage?”

There are many ways of incorporating face massage into skincare routine – which one you choose will determine whether or not you should wash the oil off. It will also depend on your individual skin tolerance.

It’s worth mentioning there is no necessity to use the oil at all… although it is unquestionable there should be a slippery layer on the skin while doing face massage (this way we prevent the skin from stretching and folding), whether you use cream, oil (whichever type) or another product it’s up to you. Interesting example of alternative product may be a massage cream.

"About Me" Massage cream is an example of cream made specially for facial massage. Directions: apply on clean skin, massage, leave for few minutes until the cream turns transparent and wipe off with a cotton pad (do not wash). Downside: It's based on mineral oil :(

I personally like to do face massage in the evenings during the first phase of face double cleansing method and this is why you can pretty much always see my tutorials with an oil.

The double cleansing method comes from Korean multi step skin care which I tested over the years and very much like. It advocates first facial cleansing using cleansing oil (a product that acts as oil but it’s removable with water) which binds the oil based impurities like sebum, remaining of foundation, sun screens etc and washes them away, followed by the second cleansing using water based cleanser which removes water based impurities like dirt, sweat and dust.

I think oil cleansing phase is a great moment to do face massage because rather than distributing the cleansing oil in random directions, if we then use moves against the gravity instead (which is the idea behind face massage :) ), massage routine becomes a natural and effortless part of the skincare.

Now, because cleansing oils are not easily available in the UK, it is perfectly fine to replace it with a regular oil. After trying many different variations, my personal favourite became grape seed oil because it’s light, cheap, easily removable and easily available.

"Suma" grapeseed oil is the exact oil I use at the moment. 500ml costs £3.99.

I used to use organic oils but since I wash it off after few minutes of massage I decided it's not worth the extra cost.

It is understandable that doing massage in cleansing stage will require washing the oil off the face after, just as we would wash the cleansing oil – because it becomes mixed with the remaining of makeup and other impurities. However you may wish to incorporate face massage into later part of skincare routine e.g. after cleansing and toning. In that case, using face massage moves to help distributing night cream or facial oil (e.g. rosehip or argan oil) would mean you will not need to wash it off after you are done.

It's also possible to do the massage in the morning (although it's generally advised to do so in the evenings as it relaxes and distresses the face at the end of the day). For example when I get up with a puffy face, I sometimes do a quick “depuffing” massage before the shower or occasionally under the shower while I wash my face with a face wash.

Here is the link to my "Depuffing" face massage tutorial

Whether or not you should keep an oil could also depend if your skin tolerates them well. No matter which oil I use, my skin tend to get breakouts and blackheads if I leave it over night. This may be completely not the case for you :)

To sum up, no – you don’t have to wash the oil off, but it depends at what point in your skincare routine you decide to do your face massage.

I hope that helps!

Olga